SOOT IN THE FLUES

of the folks are not here anymore, but the families carry on.
It’s great the very popular hobby of gas engines and items
relevant to that brother engine is carrying on at full blast; just
hope there are many more years of the two combining in these great
get-togethers. Now, don’t forget when you get back home after
your trek across the great U.S. to sit down and write me some
letters and tell me all about the great trips you have had enjoying
your hobby.

‘I have always been more than a little intrigued by the
prospect of one of those 150 HP Case road locos showing up,’
writes QUENTIN W. SHULTZ, Box 83, Griswald, Iowa 51535.

‘Several years ago there was a hot rumor of a fellow seeing
one in Colorado. He even took a picture of it, but the film was bad
and so the picture didn’t turn out. That large Case show engine
in the ‘house on the rock’ in Wisconsin is hard to judge.
The only way to investigate it would be to get permission to climb
over it with a tape measure. Perhaps others have already done
that.

I have been an ALBUM family member since 1953, so have quite a
pile of them in the basement. I still enjoy each issue and hope it
never quits. I was just a young engineer with a 50 Case back in
’53, but time waits for no one. I still have my complete Case
steam outfit.’ (Thanks for writing, that is what keeps the
ALBUM coming.)

A letter comes from one of our IMA family who has contributed
many times to the column. It is from FRANK J. BURRIS, 1102 Box
Canyon Road, Fallbrook, California 92028: ‘Amidst the efforts
of writing my autobiography (I am up to page 24, at age 6 years)
and trying to master word-processing and several other pieces of
‘software’. I just had to inquire whether the picture of
the very youthful Anna Mae (IMA Mar/Apr ’93, page 10) was that
one of your daughters?’

(Now, Frank you’re just teasing me! You know it says Front
Row, Anna Mae, then daughters Dana and Keli. I think too it was a
great picture and I’m glad we did this. Had a big get-together
at Dana’s house in September, 1990 and we all have enlarged
copies of this as that was our last complete family picture.)

Frank continues, ‘I will combine with this a few remarks
concerning the nice article ‘Steam Powered Automobile Under
Development’ by Frank Lockhart. It has been said that ‘Free
Advice is worth just what it cost.’ The following is open
criticism, of course, but it is based on engineering facts, and may
be of help to anyone else who is interested in playing around with,
or hopeful of developing a new form of steam-driven road
vehicle.

‘1. It is certainly fun to play around with this sort of
toy; but one should realize that such machine can never compete
with the gasoline-powered internal combustion engine driven
machines because of lower efficiency, less convenience, and
un-readiness.

‘2. The design, as depicted, must necessarily require some
form of self-starter, since it is subject to stopping dead
center.

‘3. From the type of cylinder head to be utilized, and the
long passages to a valve control system, further losses are
incurred in excessive steam clearances, for the steam upon
expanding in such passages can perform no work. Abner Doble just
about hit the epitome in this regard in his last developments
wherein he utilized uni-flow cylinders with popper valves in his
under the hood, V-type, single-acting engines (which obviated
cross-heads and rod packing). This was similar to Serpollet of
France way back in 1920. And it is further advancement from the
Wolff compound cylinder design which incorporates too long passages
from valve to cylinder. Russell had them beat on this point.

‘4. Unless this two-cylinder, single-acting engine is to be
utilized with a transmission (and description rather belays this)
the use of flywheel is superfluous. Again, a self-starter?

‘5. Some of the above disadvantages could be obviated by
simply utilizing an additional steam cylinder, such that the angle
between each would be 120 degrees utilizing a single crank. This
was the plan of the Trask-Detroit Steam Car, developed way back in
about 1924, but never placed into production. Such machine could
employ a separate three-cylinder engine directly connected to each
half-axle, obviating use of differential gear.

‘6. Then, when all this is done, there remains the problem
of the boiler, or, more properly, the evaporator. This is really
the knot of the whole deal. Neutralized water supply, with suitable
condenser system for necessary conservation. In a large power plant
this is no problem, where pre-heaters, super-heaters, and cooling
towers may be utilized; such that, by employing the much more
efficient turbine engines, efficiencies may be attained to rival
those of the Diesel engine (about 47%). Common steam engines, by
contrast, rate some 6%. But we have much more fun with the latter!
There is little fun in watching the housing of a giant turbine with
its internal rotor spinning away and putting out 50,000 HP.

‘7. In uni-flow cylinder design, provision must be made (if
full condensing of exhaust steam is not to be employed) for relief
of back-pressure on exhaust stroke (the end cylinder port is
insufficient). This is usually accomplished by an auxiliary post
midway up the cylinder.

‘There is certainly no intention to discourage Mr. Lockhart
in the above discussion. But neither let him invent the wheel
twice, for he may then relent upon some of his hard work.
Additionally, it is suggested that, if he can find one of the OLDER
issues of the Encyclopedia Americana (or Britannica) outside a
library, he may find much interesting and helpful information. My
experience is based on steam locomotive shop work during WW I,
followed by that of the Sweeney Auto School, factory engineering
work with both steam and electrical corporations, and finally in
university study and then 55 more years ‘in the field’. And
I am still studying my bloom in’ head off trying to keep
up.

‘But another experimenter is always welcome in the business.
Who knows what might turn up? How about a valve gear for Mr.
Lockhart’s engine? Just remember that in thermodynamics and
reciprocating engines, the closer the combustion and expansion of
the fuel is to the working cylinder, the less the transformation
loses. The boiler is an extra link in this process.’ (It was
good to hear from you again, Frank.)

JAMES E. MALZ, 2748 State Route 7, Andover, Ohio, tells us:
‘Here is a picture of a very rare steam traction engine. It is
a 20th Century, a 16 HP, made in Boynton, Pennsylvania, in 1916. We
purchased this engine from Art Blain, Petrolia, Pennsylvania in
September, 1992.’ (It is nice, James, and maybe some more folks
will be stimulated to send in pictures and comments on it.)

‘I have been a long time reader of IMA and its sister paper
GEM,. In fact, I had an article entitled ‘With Steam The Seed
Was Sown’ printed in IMA several years ago. (This letter comes
from H. A. LEWIS, Box 55, Gray, Saskatchewan, S0G 2A0).

‘Your letter in the March/April issue on page 16 from Harold
Biel of Minnesota asking for information about a shock loader
prompted me to recount the history of this machine. It was strictly
a Canadian development, but a few of them did get into North Dakota
and Montana.

‘I have been a long time reader of IMA and its sister paper
GEM. In ‘If I was at my home in Saskatchewan I might have been
able to find a picture of the machine in operation. I live in
Arizona for the winter months at 10712 E. Apache Trail, Apache
Junction, Arizona 85220. However, I have tried to sketch out the
general principles of the machine which in the farmer’s
vernacular was called a stook loader.

‘In 1910 the Stewart Manufacturing Company was organized in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, and they engaged in production of a loader on
the general principals shown in my sketch. By 1915 the limitations
on a location of steel, because of the first World War, forced the
factory to shut down and they went bankrupt.

‘In 1917, the same group went through reorganization under
the name of The Loader Company.’ They obtained an allocation of
steel as a war measure to release manpower for national
conscription drive. With a background of experience they developed
a new design with many improvements over the old Stewart Machine.
The Acme Loader was produced by the hundreds and flourished until
the combined problems of the depression in the Thirties and the
introduction of combine harvesting. During the ’20s almost
every farm threshing outfit in western Canada had a loader and many
of them are still standing obsolete in the backyards of farms. The
original Stewart loaders were painted red with black iron parts,
and the Acme loaders used yellow and black paint.

‘The stooks, or shocks in U.S. terms, were placed in fairly
straight lines from the binders, then stooked, and the stook loader
which was pulled by four horses was driven along the line of stooks
as it loaded them into a bundle rack driven beside it. A steel
fingered drum on the loader rotated to pick up the whole stook and
any loose bundles in the row, elevate them on a raddle to a cross
raddle which elevated them and dropped them in a special wagon and
rack which was built with a high right side to prevent bundles
being cast over the side. When loaded, the rack, with its own
teamster and team of horses, was driven to the threshing machine.
An Acme Loader and four rack teams could keep a good 28′ or
32′ threshing machine busy.’

The following communication is from KARL SORENSEN, 989 Pond View
Ct., Vadnais Heights, Minnesota 55127, and refers to an article
with sketches that was in the March/April IMA 1993, pages 22 &
23. (Also on this letter was this name: MAHLON SORENSEN, Box 11193,
Arkola Road 1817, Meadowlands, Minnesota 55765.)

‘It would be nice to see steam-powered cars come back, but I
think the future is in electric cars.

‘My dad said if Frank Lockhart has any engineering ability,
he would know that heavy wall seamless steel pipe and pipe caps
would not hold steam pressure for 55, let alone 100 HP.

‘Also, all engines have to have cast iron or cast steel for
pressures such as in steam or internal combustion engines. Aluminum
is used in lawn mower engines and small autos such as VW etc., but
they have cast steel liners and the cylinder head on small autos,
because they are easily warped if they become overheated; that is
why we watch the coolant level.

‘The price seems fictitious. He says nothing about an
experimental engine and patent applied for same.

‘There is no control shown on how to stop the steam from
entering the engineon the return stroke after the power stroke. On
the Case steam engine, on top of the cylinder, there is a slide
valve that lets steam in when the piston is at the top for power
stroke and stops when the piston returns.

‘Mr. Lockhart might be talking about steam turbine engines.
But it takes too much room and weight to convert oil or coal or
wood to steam.”

HOWARD H. MURCHIE, Box 476, Jamestown, North Dakota 58402 sends
this:

‘If anyone can straighten me out, it will be appreciated. In
1938, moved two buildings in Center area about twenty five miles
northwest of Bismarck Mandan, North Dakota, with just the
Mississippi River between the two.

‘There were, as I saw in a newspaper, the largest
locomotives made there. They were on the Northern Pacific, running
from Mandan to Glendine, Montana. I was told there were five of
them, was near the railroad a time or two when they went through.
The exhaust could be heard quite a long way and it sounded like
rifle shots.

‘In later years, I made the acquaintance of Hank Gibins, who
said he was an engineer on one of the locomotives. Hank never got
tired of talking of steam and how it was superior to the diesels.
Last time I wrote to Hank at Lily, South Dakota, I had a letter
from his wife that Hank had died while playing cards.

‘Don’t know the exact date, but read that somewhere down
in the states a man or a company had the largest locomotive built.
Do not know the man’s name or address. I was told that when the
diesel took over, the locomotives were sold to Russia.

‘In the ’50s, I was at Vermillion Bay, Ontario. One
foggy morning two freight trains met head-on. I will never know the
reason for one train not taking a siding. It was thought that due
to heavy fog the engineers hadn’t seen the signal. Following
Sunday, went to see the wreck. It was possibly ten miles north of
the trans-Canadian Highway near Quebec, I think on the Canadian
Railway. They still had quite a crew of men working. The steamer
was on the track, apparently not too badly damaged. They were
picking the diesel up in pieces with a clam. Hank would have liked
to see that steamer!’

We are welcoming a newcomer to the IMA family as NICK KUZ, P.O.
Box 29, Hadashville, Manitoba, Canada ROE 0X0 writes to us and
states: ‘I’m 64 years of age and I’m looking forward to
being involved with steam engines. However, my whole life I ran a
sawmill powered with diesel and later electricity, but now I’ll
be taking retirement. So, I’m looking forward to purchasing a
stationary Utica steamer or similar, or get to know people who can
build them at my machine shop. When I was eight years old, I’d
walk two miles to the track and spur; there the train locomotive
steamer would switch the cars around. I was so impressed watching
the steamer going back and forward, at 40 below zero for two hours,
with not even being cold watching.

‘I will try to correspond with more people through IMA
magazine. I really enjoy reading this magazine and having steam
power as my interest. I thank all you nice people and let’s
keep Steam Alive!’ (And we’re glad you are joining with us,
Nickfrom what you write, I believe you belong to our clan).

‘I am sending two pictures of a steam engine that was
donated to our association this year. I hope some of your readers
can shed some light on just what we have here.’ (And I’ll
bet you can get some replies.) Write to BILL THURMAN, R. R. 1, Box
226, Archie, Missouri 64725, or call 816-293-5503.

‘This engine was shipped to our area in the early 1880s. As
far as we know, it is an 8-12 HP Nichols & Shepard. We were
told by the family who bought the engine new (their great
grandparents) this was at one time a portable, but a kit was bought
to convert it into a tractor.

The smoke box is a separate piece from the barrel and was
hand-riveted to the barrel so it could have a heavier front axle
put on it. The rear wheels are somewhat like Case wheels as the
spokes are screwed into the hub with nuts to hold them. It has a
band or tire bolted onto the outside of the wheel with the gouters
cast in it. The front wheels have the spokes cast in them and only
one wheel has a skid ring on it. The spokes of both wheels are
straight across and do not alternate like most of the other
engines.

‘We have some parts, but need an engine for it as it was
taken off in the ’30s. Any information or leads on parts would
be greatly appreciated. The boiler is in excellent condition. We
want to restore this engine as it was the first tractor of any type
to come to this part of Missouri. Thank you very much and God
bless!’ (So get your pens and paper and help your buddy with
his interest.)

‘I still enjoy Soot in the Flues and IMA in general. I keep
a paper in my wallet and as I think of subjects that I would like
to know more about, I jot it down and include it in my letter to
Soot in the Flues,’ writes JOE B. DILL, Route 1, Box 26, Las
cassas, Tennessee 37085.

‘First, what is a ground hog thresher? I remember Pop
mentioning it, and others. One person mentioned ground hog thresher
lately. But I never asked more about how that type thresher worked
when Pop mentioned it.

‘I don’t know where I read about it, but what is a duck
bill F-30 Far-mall? I never heard of it around here, but I
understand there is one named as I said.

‘Now, this is a good one! Back when I was in high school,
maybe before, 1936-40, IH sent us an ad magazine named Tractor
Farming, and I remember it as a very interesting magazine about
F-20s, 30s and all the IH line of implements and crawlers. I have
asked several IHC men and nobody remembers this magazine. Has
anyone out in Engine Land any memory of it? Was I the only one
getting it?

‘I will tell now about my early days and the stories told me
and things I saw, steam engines and early tractors. The only steam
engines I saw were on road graders up until WWII; Cats replaced
them after the war. No steam engines on farms by 1928 other than
powering threshers.

‘My earliest memory of a tractor was probably about 1927.
This tractor was moving a thresher to a grain field. The tractor
was very colorful, maybe an 8-16 IH that had been painted. I know
it had an odd appearance. It could have been a cross motor
tractor.

‘The threshing place was a distance from the barn and I
followed to see the outfit at work. Once it was threshing, I
remember distinctly that it was a hand fed type; one man in center
feeding into the cylinder and one on each side cutting binds. The
grain came out at the bottom into a box, probably Vi bushel, and
while one box was being filled the other box was being emptied in a
sack. There was a lot of dust, and two men were building a
well-shaped stack to be fed in winter to the cows. Our farm was a
cow-calf operation and lots of sheep and no tractors in regular
farm operation. This was on the home place.

‘The next threshing scene I remember was on a farm that Pop
bought and sold later. The rig was a 28’ IHC thresher powered
by a 15-30 IHC tractor, and the thresher had all the improvements
of later IHC threshers. The big 15-30 rig did our threshing for
years and this owner also had a sawmill. Mr. Jim Vance was a very
successful operator and moved the mill to our old place to saw out
a new barn in 1931. I was nine years old and remember the
carpenter’s hand saw and that was a big one with an extra
handle sticking up on top. It had teeth same as a crosscut. I never
saw another one like it until a few years ago. My aunts bought a
toy saw (good one) and a hammer after the barn was built and gave
it to me and I built all sorts of toy barns.

‘All through these threshing years I remember all the big
dinners and the fun. Mr. Vance, who was getting along in years,
retired and just threshed near his home, I remember the religious
thing in those days. The congregation where he worshipped would
have their annual weekly meeting after all his threshing runs were
over. He didn’t miss a service.

‘His machinery was always in perfect condition and he never
worked on it after starting the thresher or sawmill. One day he was
resting under a shade tree after lunch (dinner it was called in
those days); and he evidently noticed my brother, age five and very
inquisitive, and he decided to have some fun with him. Mr. Vance
complained that his teeth were hurting which got my brother
Thomas’ attention. Mr. Vance had false teeth and I was already
familiar with the false teeth thing, but Thomas wasn’t. Mr.
Vance said, ‘I’m going to pull them out!’ Suddenly he
pulled his false teeth out and Thomas was amazed! Mr. Vance got a
big laugh out of that and Thomas learned a lot.

‘Next scene was near Murfreesboro in a 20 acre field of
wheat that was real good and shocks were thick. It was my cousin
Jim’s wheat and his threshing rig was a finely tuned 15-30IH
and a 28’ thresher. Cousin Jim was a genius with machinery
(electrical and all) and he also didn’t stop after he started.
A Farmall regular and a truck and maybe an F-20 with a wagon hauled
shocks to the thresher. There were no mules now hauling bundles. We
were getting modern and the year was 1936.1 was driving the Farmall
regular and throwing bundles in the thresher.

‘Cousin Jim, after the 15-30 was warmed up from the load,
would set the water attachment. He would spend five minutes
adjusting the water to the engine and when completed the small
amount of steam coming from the radiator cap had disappeared. The
exhaust had a sweet smell and was keen. When we would bundle,
pitchers would accidentally pile a bundle or two (too much) on the
feeder. That 15-30 had power to spare and the 28’ IHC thresher
was doing a fine job of separating and cleaning the grain. We had
all the sacked grain loaded and ready for the grain house before
sundownwhat a day!!

‘My next outstanding experience was with a sawmill in the
winter of 1937 with our 22-36 IH furnishing power. I was about 14
and would rush home from school to help with the sawmill and all
day on Saturdays. I watched everything the operator was doing while
running the sawmill. One Saturday the operator was sick and that
was my chance to run the mill and I applied for the job and as
usual Pop said, ‘Get at it!’ I sawed 2500 ft. of lumber
that day. We, in one winter, had sawed lumber for two 40 x 50 barns
and two sheds plus custom sawing. That ended our sawing and Pop
sold the mill.

‘The threshing thing was closing out. Farmers were buying
small five and six foot combines and custom operators were doing
the grain harvesting. My cousin, Thomas Dill, had a new 12-A John
Deere in 1939 to harvest lespedeza (which was new here in early and
mid ’30s), and Thomas, cousin Jim’s son, combined lespedeza
until Christmas every fall and did real good. Cousin Thomas and Jim
didn’t leave any grain in the stack and Thomas’s 12-A
didn’t leave any lespedeza or clover in the field. Both were
applying high technology as it is called nowadays to operating and
setting their harvesting machinery and it did a good job.

‘Thomas was small in stature and was very energetic and was
in charge of operating his pop’s 22’ IH thresher and 15-30
IH; that was when he was a freshman in high school.

‘I enjoy Mr. Vinson Gritten’s articles in Soot in the
Flues, as his experiences as a kid and young man remind me of these
cousins of mine.

‘I see Thomas often (he is five years older than I am) and
he tells of his experiences with running machinery when he was a
kid. An outstanding experience was when he was 14 and taking a rock
crusher to a crushing job and pulling the crusher with a one
cylinder big Rumely tractor. He ran out of gas in the middle of a
main street in Murfreesboro. Plus he had not learned of the
compression relief valve on the Rumely and he and Ed, his helper,
couldn’t turn the flywheel and start the Rumely. After many
attempts and a one hour wait in the street, he located his dad and
asked him about where the compression relief valve was, and then
the Rumely started the first turn of the flywheel.

‘A number of unusual things happen in threshing. Our
thresherman’s very capable helper, Will Jacoway, was going to a
threshing job pulling a 22’ IH thresher with a Farmall M
tractor. He pulled the rig into a narrow crooked lane thinking the
lane led to the threshing site. After going a quarter mile and
beginning to doubt if this was the right lane, Will investigated
and found that this wasn’t the right lane and there was no
place to turn around and go back out. The story went that Will
backed the rig all the way back to the highway without stopping to
pull forward to realign the thresher for the journey backward to
the highway. This was about 1940 and it was the last, or among the
last, of the years of threshing.

‘After WW II there were few threshing rigs in operation. All
the threshers were in the shed and the small combines were doing
the harvesting.

‘I owned a W-30 IH at first and later sold it and bought a
Deere B for row crops along with our cow and sheep operation.

‘I grew com and in 1951 I purchased a 12-A, rebuilt it and
started custom combining. I harvested a 10 acre field of crimson
clover the first day of operating with the 12-A and made 11 bushels
per acre of clean seed! I never did that good again, nor did I ever
see another field of crimson clover that good since. Crimson clover
is hard to thresh. A shower will knock the seed from heads and, all
in all, it is a difficult crop to harvest. Generally, however, we
are satisfied if we get three to five bushels per acre as crimson
clover is an excellent pasture crop and a soil builder.

‘I’ll have to include some steam engine threshing and
sawmill stories told me about a local rig owned by Rural Young and
operated by a black fellow in our community before my day. Monroe
‘Mun’ McHenry did all the operating for Mr. Young. The
engine was a Peerless. When in a hurry to get through threshing,
Mun would stack the wood (short small sticks) on the platform by
the firebox door. He was a keen operator and would close the
firebox door between each stick of wood thrown into the firebox.
This was conserving heat and avoiding sudden changes in temperature
of steel around the firebox. Mun bought the rig when the Young
family went into the lumber business in Murfreesboro about 1922 and
stayed in that business until early 1950s.

‘I am not a good writer and occasionally leave out a line or
two as: Will Jacoway, a black friend, is still living but in bad
health. He operated the late Jesse King threshing rig and he stops
by for a chat occasionally. He told me that he did back the Farmall
M and the 22’ thresher out of the lane to the highway, but
people, amazed at his ability, added a lot to it in fun. He did
have to pull the rig up some to correct the backward movement of
the thresher. Will started working for Mr. King when he was 12
years old and continued to the early 1950s. Also, Mun’s family,
outstanding people, worked off and on for Pop; one of Mun’s
brothers started work here at age 13 and continued, leaving at age
30 going to a Post Office job in Nashville, the only two jobs he
ever had!

‘Mun’s brother’s son, Raymond McHenry, came to work
here in 1937 when he was 28. He bought one of Pop’s places in
1962. He still owns and lives there, enjoying retirement. Raymond
often tells how Mr. Dill told him to get some calves when he had
been here a few years and if he didn’t get calves, as we had
plenty of hay and pasture, that he would be scratching a poor
man’s head all his life! Raymond has had cattle all the time
since and is also a success story of years gone by!

‘A bit more that I left out our Dill cousins, Jim and his
son, Thomas, were outstanding mechanical people. Cousin Jim, as an
eleven year old, built a working model steam engine to power their
family’s coffee grinder. As he related how it was made to me,
he says the cylinder was made out of a hand tire pump and was cast
into an aluminum frame that he cast. Later, at age 13, he made a
head gasket for a one cylinder diesel engine that worked after
other repairmen had failed. Their gasket was too thick.

‘At age 16, he made a wooden frame hay baler, with a one
cylinder gas engine as power. Also, it pulled ground wheels that
moved it from hay shock to hay shock and farm to farm! With help
from his school buddies, he made $1600 the first summer that they
operated it.

‘I visited him often and he would tell of all the fun of his
good old days and he really enjoyed talking. I failed to think of
taking my drawing pad, ruler and pencil and draw those machines
with him directing the art work, as drawing would have been
valuable. I could almost draw the machines from memory and may do
it later. He was 90 and would talk farming and mechanics as if he
was going to go at it the next day.

‘Another tale to remember! Pop’s friend, a bird-hunting
buddy and a neighbor, Jess Williams, were operating a steam engine
and threshing rig at Rural Young’s folks. With the help of his
many sons, he also broke mules.

‘Mr. Jess’ threshing was stopped by a shower and all
were in the farmer’s shop where he shod horses and mules and
were waiting for the wheat to dry so as to thresh properly. The
senior farmer heard one of his eight sons say a cuss word. He
inquired as to who said it and all the boys, ages 13 to 22, said
they were innocent. The senior decided that the only way to give
the guilty one his whippin’ was to whip all of them. He pushed
the shop door closed and told Mr. Jess to hold the door shut, which
he did.

‘The senior had trouble catching some of his sons, but after
their whippings, a cloud of dust was coming out around the door and
from cracks in the board shop. The senior was having to catch them
and that brought in the dust thing.

‘When all were punished for the cuss word, the senior
exclaimed that that was one way of getting the job done. When the
dust settled the senior found that he had lost his hat! He, Mr.
Jess and the eight sons hunted for the hat in the dusty shop, but
the hat wasn’t found!

‘I will look forward to Iron Men Album and Soot in the
Flues, in particular. I enjoyed Mr. Gritten’s letter where he
was a kid and was operating some machinery, but was hesitating as
there was something ahead that he didn’t think he could do his
dad had stepped up on the tractor and his confidence was perfected
and he made the drive easily. That is the perfect parable to our
life with Christ as our guide. He is with us all the time! Mr.
Gritten write another letter! I enjoy them, as well as all the
letters!’

ARLA J. LAGE, Box 64, Canby, Minnesota 56220 writes us and gives
us the address of William Sievert (Bill), 201 7th Street W., Canby,
Minnesota 56220 and remarks, ‘Bill Sievert was featured in one
of your magazines about a year ago, as Oil Pull Bill. Bill has been
in very poor health this last year, but is recovering from surgery
and from the loss of his only child, Catherine Sievert Beams. Bill
turned 98 on February 19, 1993. I was wondering if we could ask for
a card shower for him through your magazine. Bill would enjoy
hearing from anyone interested in tractors, etc. A greeting card or
letter of any type would be very welcome. You see, I am Bill’s
step-daughter. I am thanking you in advance.’ (Here’s
hoping many of you will drop Bill a card, I’m sure it would
brighten up his days.)

Now, I have a few choice writings to leave you with. Think on
this:

‘Consider the hammer. It keeps its head. It doesn’t fly
off the handle. It keeps pounding away. It finds the point and then
drives it home. It looks at the other side too, and thus often
clinches the matter. It makes mistakes, but when it does, it starts
all over. It is the only knocker in the world that does any
good.’

Need I say more? We can all take a look at ourselves.

It is not what we EAT but what we DIGEST that makes us strong.
Not what we GAIN but what we SAVE that makes us RICH. Not what we
READ but what we REMEMBER that makes us LEARNED. Not what we
PROFESS but what we PRACTICE that makes us CHRISTIANS. Keep your
fears for yourself, but share your courage with others. Nothing
lies beyond the reach of prayer except that which lies beyond the
will of God.

That’s it for this time, my dear IMA family, but I might
plead with you to get the letters to me. The pile is very slim
right now. I have a little, but I need more NOW. Love you all!